[Mr. David Amessin the Chair]

I beg to move,

That—

(1) during proceedings on the Fraud Bill [Lords] the Standing Committee shall (in addition to its first meeting at 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday 20th June) meet-

(a) at 4.00 p.m. on Tuesday 20th June;

(b) at 9.00 a.m. and 2.00 p.m. on Thursday 22nd June;

(2) the proceedings shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at 6.00 p.m. on Thursday 22nd June'.

We look forward to a good debate during the course of the Bill under your wise chairmanship, Mr. Amess.

May I welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Amess? I suspect that the Committee may be passed in such harmony that our debates may be even briefer than we expect. However, we will have an opportunity for some serious consideration of the Bill. Although the Opposition do not much care for programme motions, this one is sufficiently innocuous as to not merit too much of my attention.

Mr. Amess, may I also welcome you to the Chair? My suspicion is that the Committee will be a good-tempered, intelligent and well-argued one. It is a pleasure to deal with Home Office or home affairs business that is not as contentious as we have done on occasion.

There is general agreement that the Bill has merit but there are details that we will wish to explore in depth. However, I suspect that the programme motion, for once, gives us adequate time to deal with the niceties of matters before us. There is no need for me to delay the Committee further, other than to say that I know my hon. Friend the Member for Cheadle (Mr. Hunter) is simultaneously serving on another Standing Committee on the Company Law Reform Bill. Therefore, although I will welcome my hon. Friend’s presence, I understand the essential dichotomy that faces him in being a member of two Committees at the same time.

Question put and agreed to.

Presumably, at some stage, the weather will get warm. If Members wish to remove clothing, within reasonable limits, please do so. If anyone has a complaint about any matter, if they would kindly see us, we will do something about it.

I remind Members that adequate notice should be given of amendments. As a general rule, I and my fellow Chairman, Mr. Martin Jones, do not intend to call starred amendments, including any starred amendments that may be reached during an afternoon sitting of the Committee.